Amanda Chase

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Support for declaration of martial law

In a Facebook post on December 15, 2020, after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Chase called upon Trump to declare federal martial law and overturn the election results. [36] Chase baselessly asserted that there was "extensive fraud here in Virginia" [37] and alleged that the Biden–Harris campaign "cheated to win". Democratic representative Jennifer Wexton called Chase "unhinged" and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kirk Cox called her position "absurd and dangerous"; other officials also condemned Chase's statement, including Denver Riggleman, Barbara Comstock, and David Ramadan. [22]

Storming of the United States Capitol and censure by the state Senate

Chase attended Donald Trump's rally prior to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but stated that she left before the rioting began. [2] Chase refused to denounce the attack on the Capitol. [38] She praised the rioters as "Patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turn into a socialist country" [38] while falsely suggesting that left-wing "antifa or BLM agents of destruction" were to blame for the assault. [2] [3] (After Chase promoted this falsehood on Facebook, the social media site suspended her official Facebook account, which has more than 100,000 followers, for one week; [2] [20] [3] her personal Facebook account was unaffected. [20] )

Chase also expressed her disappointment that Vice President Mike Pence did not intercede in the counting of the electoral votes to overturn Biden's victory. [39] [38] Chase later said that Trump still might be sworn in for a second term, saying, "The insurrection is actually the deep state with the politicians working against the people to overthrow our government." [40]

On January 27, 2021, the state Senate voted 249 to censure Chase for "conduct unbecoming a senator" and "fomenting insurrection against the United States." [7] [8] Three Republicans joining the majority in passing the censure resolution, which marked the first censure of a Virginia state senator since 1987. [7] [8] Six Republican senators did not vote. [2] Republican leaders in the Virginia Senate removed her from her committee assignment and bemoaned her "selfishness and constant need for media attention." [41] In February 2021, Chase sued the state Senate and its clerk, claiming that the censure violated her First Amendment rights; [9] the court dismissed her suit in May 2021. [42]

Chase also claimed that Democratic state Senator Jennifer McClellan, a candidate for governor, could not represent all Virginians because of her leadership role in the Virginia Legislature's Black Caucus; this was one of several statements cited in the censure resolution against Chase. [21]

Campaign for the 2021 Republican gubernatorial nomination

Chase announced on February 17, 2020, that she would be seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the 2021 election. [43] In December 2020, after the Virginia Republican Party decided to select its statewide nominees through a convention rather than an open primary, Chase said she would run for governor in the 2021 election as an independent candidate in the general election, but would remain a Republican. [17] Chase threatened to seek the gubernatorial nomination as an independent in an "independent primary". [44] Six days later, Chase reversed her decision to run as an independent, and continued on to run as a Republican while pushing for a primary. [45] On January 23, 2021, the 80-member Republican State Central Committee debated a proposal by Chase and her supporters to scrap the convention in favor of a primary. Amid an acrimonious debate, deadlock, and parliamentary maneuvering, the committee voted to stay with a convention. [46] In an interview with The New York Times , Chase vowed to "take out whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination, and I will be the next governor of Virginia." [41]

On February 9, 2021, Chase sued the Republican Party of Virginia, arguing that the convention is illegal under current executive orders. [47] A Virginia circuit court judge dismissed the suit ten days later. [48]

Chase was one of seven candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor: the others were Delegate Kirk Cox, a longtime member of the House of Delegates; Sergio de la Peña, a retired Army colonel and former Trump Defense Department appointee; Peter Doran, a former think tank executive; Pete Snyder, a businessman; Octavia Johnson, a former Roanoke sheriff; and Glenn Youngkin, a former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group. [49] [50] All of the Republican candidates for the gubernatorial nomination campaigned on the basis of their loyalty to Trump. [51] On May 10, 2021, Chase lost her bid for nomination at the Republican nomination convention to Youngkin. [21] [52] She came in third place in a seven-candidate field; she was eliminated in the second-to-last round of ranked-choice voting, with 25%. [21] The top two candidates, Youngkin and Snyder, are both multimillionaires and vastly outspent Chase, whose campaign expenditures were around $600,000 (~$665,596 in 2023). [21] Winner Youngkin went on to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the general election.

2022 congressional race

In November 2021, Chase announced she would run for the Republican nomination to potentially take on Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger in Virginia's 7th Congressional District. [53] In January 2022, after congressional redistricting put her home in Virginia's 1st Congressional District, Chase announced she would not run against incumbent Republican Congressman Rob Wittman. [54]

2024 state senate race

In July 2024, Chase announced she will run for state senate to fill the 10th district seat John McGuire left open after his victory in November. [55] Chase was unsuccessful in her attempt and finished 3rd in the Republican mass meeting in December 2024. [56]

Campaign for the 2025 Republican gubernatorial nomination

On February 26, 2025, Chase announced she would run for governor of Virginia again. [57] In April, she did not submit the minimum number of ballot signatures and she was disqualified from the primary. [58]

Election results

Amanda Chase
Bill Signing, Richmond -9-22-22 (cropped).jpg
Chase in 2022
Member of the Virginia Senate
from the 11th district
In office
January 13, 2016 January 10, 2024
2015 Virginia Senate 11th district Republican primary
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Amanda Chase 4,907 40.48%
Republican Stephen H. Martin (incumbent)4,23834.96%
Republican Barry Moore2,97724.56%
Total votes12,122 100%
2015 Virginia Senate 11th district election
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Amanda Chase 35,147 69.39%
Democratic Wayne Powell15,48130.56%
NoneWrite-In240.05%
Total votes50,652 100%
2019 Virginia Senate 11th district election
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Amanda Chase 44,245 54.5%
Democratic Amanda Pohl36,73445.3%
NoneWrite-In1890.2%
Total votes81,168 100%
2023 Virginia Senate 12th district Republican primary
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Glen Sturtevant 8,833 39.9%
Republican Amanda Chase8,36737.8%
Republican Tina Ramirez4,95622.4%
Total votes22,156 100%
Round-by-round result visualization of the ranked-choice voting election Virginia 2021 GOP Gubernatorial Election RCV Results.gif
Round-by-round result visualization of the ranked-choice voting election
2021 Virginia GOP Convention, governor nominee [59]
Candidate Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
Glenn Youngkin 4131.80 32.9% 4140.55 33.0% 4148.91 33.0% 4331.93 34.5% 5311.43 42.3% 6869.22 54.7%
Pete Snyder 3241.61 25.8% 3243.84 25.8% 3249.71 25.9% 3502.91 27.9% 4078.25 32.5% 5684.78 45.3%
Amanda Chase 2605.89 20.8% 2611.54 20.8% 2619.83 20.9% 2859.39 22.8% 3164.32 25.2% Eliminated
Kirk Cox 1693.58 13.5% 1698.13 13.5% 1705.90 13.6% 1859.77 14.8% Eliminated
Sergio de la Peña 805.35 6.4% 812.44 6.5% 829.65 6.6% Eliminated
Peter Doran42.28 0.3% 47.50 0.4% Eliminated
Octavia Johnson33.48 0.3% Eliminated

References

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  3. 1 2 3 Warren Fiske, Amanda Chase pushes bogus theory of antifa conspiracy behind Capitol riot, PolitiFact (January 15, 2021).
  4. Bort, Ryan (November 2, 2021). "Glenn Youngkin's Campaign Surrogates Are Already Crying Fraud Ahead of Virginia's Gubernatorial Election— So Is Trump: The Republican can't disentangle himself from the election fraud conspiracy theories that helped win him the nomination". Rolling Stone . New York, NY: Penske Media Corporation . Retrieved May 2, 2024. State Senator Amanda Chase, perhaps Virginia's most vehement election fraud conspiracy theorist...
  5. Moomaw, Graham (June 22, 2023). "Vowing to fight election loss, Sen. Amanda Chase admits she's not sure there was fraud". Virginia Mercury. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
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  45. Jarvis, Brandon (December 11, 2020). "Amanda Chase changes course, says she will participate in a Republican convention". Virginia Scope. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  46. Oliver, Ned (January 24, 2021). "Virginia Republicans stick with nominating convention". Virginia Mercury. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
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  55. Ress, Dave (July 3, 2024). "Amanda Chase bids to fill McGuire's state Senate seat" . Richmond Times-Dispatch . Archived from the original on July 3, 2024.
  56. Beyer, Elizabeth (December 14, 2024). "Republicans nominate Cifers for state Senate seat that McGuire is vacating". Cardinal News. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
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